Morchestra: An Evening of Brazilian Big Band featuring Masha Campagne

The Morchestra is a big band based in Berkeley and led by composer/arranger/guitarist Tony Corman. We are used to hearing Brazilian dance music either in small acoustic groups or samba percussion bands. But the Morchestra brings a big sound with a horn-heavy big band and great dance arrangements. The players are all Bay Area jazz stalwarts, and the repertoire encompasses jazz classics, the Great American Songbook, Corman’s atmospheric originals, and a hefty serving of Brazilian music. The Morchestra has appeared at the California Jazz Conservatory, La Peña and Birdland. Previous special guests include DownBeat poll-winning vocalist Ed Reed, multi-instrumentalist Roger Glenn, and the great jazz vocalist Nicolas Bearde, a founding member of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra.

Tonight’s concert focuses entirely on Brazilian dance music and features vocalist Masha Campagne, who has devoted herself to this wonderful music in all its shades and hues. It will also be the debut of a number of new arrangements written by Corman for Masha, including some classic bossas and sambas, a bit of Djavan funk, some Toninho Horta, and gems from this rich genre. Along with Campagne and Corman, the band features flugelhorn and trumpet players Brad Catania and Walter Beveridge; pianist Laura Klein; drummer-percussionists Michaelle Goerlitz and Kelly Zaban Fasman; flute and saxophone player Alex Murzyn; trombonists David Terán Otey, Richard Lee and Dave Martell; saxophonist Amelia Timbang Catalano; and bassist Karl Hartmann.